Overnight UCLA beginning its crackdown on the campuses pro Palestinian
encampment.
Police in riot gear moving in early this morning.
All right, police in riot gear right now.
You can hear the flash bangs there.
But the police, they are
breaking the barrier trying to make their way into the
encampment.
The students though, they're pushing back and trying to hold
the line.
Protesters clashing with the police,
at one point seeming to push them away from the
encampment.
Many of the protesters have refused to leave until their
demands that the university divest from Israel are met.
Yesterday, violence broke out between rival protest groups after counter
protesters stormed the encampment.
The university facing criticism for failing to prevent the fighting.
The governor's office calling the law enforcement response unacceptable.
It comes as across the country,
campus confrontations are increasing. Protests focus on the conflict in
the Middle East have impacted more than 60 campuses in
recent weeks,
universities struggling with how to respond.
Just one day after NYPD officers made more than 100
arrests at Columbia University,
where protesters had taken over a building on campus,
I saw students being dragged out of there in handcuffs,
the blockade, the human chain that was outside of it
being cleared.
Hours later, Colombia's president visiting the damaged building,
writing I am sorry, we've reached this point.
Nearly 100 students from Yale protested outside the home of
that
university's president after he called for civility,
the wave of activism generating a backlash from students with
different viewpoints who say they're being harassed and barred from
moving freely around campus.
I have my ID right here.
I'm being blocked off. Eli CV is a pro Israel
student at UCLA posting this video of what he says
were protesters not allowing him to access a pathway near
an encampment, they themselves would decide who can enter and
who cannot.
I said no, no, no,
absolutely not.
OK? And just to show you guys how fast things
are unfolding,
just moments ago another wave of law enforcement have flooded
in here.
Now they are now continuing to take down the rest
of this barricade.
Here you can see it's very much folding.
They're pushing over the plywood.
And I will say earlier today as these protesters started
getting wind that potentially this was going to happen,
they began fortifying this encampment and they were putting on
gas masks. You hear the flash bangs there.
They have hard hats on.
They are very organized and prepared.
But again, law enforcement here,
which is clear mission to come in and take down
this encampment.
There are hundreds of students that are in there right
now bowing not to leave.
We have students be detained already.
We haven't heard reports of injuries.
But I have to tell you it is tense when
you see the clashes
between the the protesters and the law enforcement right now
as they are pushing their way into campus.
This is one of the most famous plazas at UCLA
as well.
Royce Hall right here, classes cancelled.
It is midterms week here at UCLA.
This is unfolding right now and it's honestly wild
to see it in real time as as hundreds of
police officers storm the encampment here on campus
and let this play out.
You guys.
So
you're you're seeing this unfold.
We're going to get out of the way.
Gets out of the way.
And again very 10 scene here right now.
I'm going to send it back to you.
Hoda. Yeah. This looks like it's the moment where the
police are physically removing everything and and moving in.
You said there'd been some students detained.
Liz. What have you seen in that in in that
realm.
Hoda. I'm sorry it's so loud here.
Could you ask me that again?
I can't. I can't hear it.
I can just. I was just asking about the students
who've been detained,
like are the law enforcement making progress?
It looks like they're they've been at this point for
a while here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry guys.
It's so loud with these.
It's hard for me to hear.
This is a boiling point that we've seen.
I will say yesterday morning
was really the tipping point when
counter protesters, pro Israel counter protesters showed up here and
got to the confrontations with these students and we saw
violence unfold overnight. The governor got involved,
the mayor of Los Angeles.
There is scrutiny right now about how UCLA let it
get to this point that we are seeing this unfold
right now.
They had tried to let students have a protest.
They were trying not to bring law enforcement in like
we've seen on other campuses,
but it let that encampment grow and grow and grow
to a point that we're now at this guys.
All right. Liz Kroitz at your post.
Keep us posted. Liz. Thank you.